Formal verification typically employs the use of mathematical techniques to “formally” (i.e. without simulating circuit input vectors) compare two circuit design models at the same or differing levels of abstraction to verify logic functionality equivalence between the models. For example, a formal equivalence verification process may be used to compare a logic circuit model in some hardware description language (HDL) against its implementation as a corresponding schematic model at the transistor level. The circuit model at the higher level of abstraction will be referred to herein as the specification circuit model (or spec) while the one at the lower level of abstraction will be referred to herein as the implementation circuit model (or imp).
Formal equivalence verification tools are frequently based on classical binary decision diagrams (BDDs). Classical BDDs are directed acyclic graph structures that encode the value of a Boolean logic function for all possible input value combinations. BDDs, in general, simplify the task of determining Boolean function equivalence because efficient algorithms for equivalence checking and other Boolean operations exist for BDDs. Because the size of a BDD representing a given circuit can grow exponentially larger with respect to the number of inputs and gates in the circuit, the memory requirements for using a formal equivalence verification tool that employs a classical BDD approach may be prohibitively large.
To address this issue, solutions using a divide-and-conquer approach have been developed. Such techniques attempt to partition the specification and implementation circuit models along frontiers of equivalent signal pairs called cut-points. The resulting sub-circuit partitions of each circuit model are then independently analyzed such that the verification task is broken into more manageable units. The manner in which cut-points and/or cut-point frontiers are selected can affect the performance of the associated formal equivalence verification tool.
One problem that may arise for some prior formal verification tools when introducing cut-points into circuit models is that the verification method may return a false negative. A false negative in this context is an indication by the formal equivalence verification tool that two circuits are different, when in reality, they are not. The process of eliminating false negatives can be time consuming.
Further, when a difference between two circuit models is identified, such prior tools typically do not provide the integrated circuit designer with information as to the source of the differences between two circuit models.